Friday, March 23, 2007

Eggs cellent

You will remember from earlier posts how enamoured the girls are with eggs. They sit on the stairs and chant "Oncolal! Oncolal! Oncolal!" - the amharic words for eggs. I got so tired of scrambling eggs that I took to hard boiling them a dozen at a time in order to save time.

One day I thought it would be cool to teach the girls to peel the eggshells off. They loved it. Now that's all they want to do. They will not eat an egg that is already shelled (unless it is a scrambled egg).

Today we had only one hard boiled egg left. The girls freaked because they each wanted one. To reassure them, Colleen went to the refrigerator, and displayed the new dozen of uncooked eggs. Remember, a 2 year old cannot distinguish between an unshelled hard boiled egg and a fresh egg. (yes, that is forshadowing)

So Emnet, who is very quick, grabs one of the fresh eggs and runs away squealing with excitement thinking she has an egg she can eat. Colleen immediately recognizes what is going to happen and lunges for Emnet. Emnet correctly interprets this as an attempt to steal her food, gives Colleen a head fake, and sprints off tackle for the bedroom. On the way, she trips over a shoe and falls "SPLAT" on to the egg.

Emnet is horrified. She has no idea what just happened other than her hands and her favorite sweatshirt are covered with slime. Meron, who had been casually observing until now, decides its a good time to experiment with walking in the slime, and tracks it all over the house. The cats, who happen to like raw eggs, follow Meron around licking the floor behind her.